


The Huntsman

by Funtimewriter



Category: Adam Levine (Musician), Blake Shelton (Musician), The Voice (US) RPF, The Voice RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Assassination Attempt(s), Homophobia, Kidnapping, M/M, Non-Consensual Bondage, Royalty, Threats of Rape/Non-Con
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-14
Updated: 2018-11-14
Packaged: 2019-08-23 16:32:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16622453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Funtimewriter/pseuds/Funtimewriter
Summary: Prince Adam is abducted by the royal huntsman and being taken to what he knows will be his death.  He only wants to know why.





	The Huntsman

**Author's Note:**

> Quick little one-shot inspired by RickWing's video, which can be found here:
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NR5I_3Ig8FI
> 
> Never saw the movie, so I (very loosely) based this on the fairy tale. Enjoy!

 

            Darkness, all sight taken from him.  Adam twisted his wrists in the coarse ropes and got a better grip on the horse’s mane.  “Where are you taking me?” he called.  “Won’t you at least tell me that much?”

            No answer from the huntsman.  The man rode ahead on his own mount, leading Adam’s on.  Adam hadn’t heard the sound of the road beneath his horse’s hooves, just the quiet sound of the animal walking over the bare ground.  The air was cooler, with leaves rustling overhead. “Are we in the forest?” Adam tried again.  “Is this where the assassination is to take place, far from prying eyes?”  He scoffed.  “My stepmother must have paid you well, huntsman, to dispose of her problem!”

            Once again, the huntsman didn’t answer.  But really, Adam thought, what could he say?  When Queen Christina had been Lady Christina, back before she’d wormed her way into his father’s marriage bed, Adam had already been all too aware of the woman’s greed, ambition, and complete lack of restraint. She’d pursued Adam doggedly, using threats and intimidations against any other suiter she felt was a threat to her. Christina had been relentless, catching Adam alone in the walls of the very palace again and again, pressing a heaving bosom against him and doing anything she could to seduce him.

            When she’d finally been forced to accept the fact that Adam was gay and would never accept her, she’d set her sights on the old King.  And the King, lulled by Christina’s beauty and the sheer sexual power of the woman, had been no match.  Little wonder he’d died in her bed.  But with no heir to challenge Adam’s claim to the throne, the new queen had known her crown was in jeopardy.  When Adam had asked to meet privately with her behind closed doors, he’d been well aware that she’d carried a poisoned dagger in her bodice.

            “I want you to keep the throne.”

            Those were the first words he’d spoken to her that day as the widow, still undeniably beautiful in her mourning black, had approached, already slipping one hand into her bodice.  And the words, Adam knew, had saved his life.  Between the two of them, they’d worked out an arrangement.  Adam would never have an heir, but Christina still could. She would keep her throne, would remarry, and would produce an heir to inherit the kingdom once he or she came of age. That would spare his people the dynastic war that would certainly result if there were no clear line of succession. Christina would not be a good ruler, but she would certainly be strong.  She would keep his father’s kingdom from war.  And in return, Prince Adam would no longer be required to entertain suitors.  He’d be free to continue his pursuit of the only thing he really cared about - his music.

            She’d agreed.  Of course she’d agreed.  Adam had just willingly handed her all she could ever want.  And Adam had remained at court, free to entertain with the minstrels, greet dignitaries, and perform his royal duties with no further fear of Christina and her ambition.

            Or so he’d believed.

            Even now, Adam wasn’t sure why this was happening.  Last night, one of Christina’s many suitors for her hand had come to court, and she’d called for Adam to play and sing for them.  It was something she did frequently, delighting that Adam’s undeniable talent had helped to make her court an even greater attraction.  But something strange had happened.  The visiting prince had, before then, focused the whole of his attention on Queen Christina, flattering her shamelessly in his attempts to win her hand.  Even from where Adam was playing, on the raised dais across from the throne, Adam could see the man was drunk.  When Adam had started to sing, though, the prince’s eyes had fallen on Adam and gone wide.  Suddenly oblivious of Christina at his side, the prince had listened, staring and enrapt, to Adam’s song.  Then he’d stood, applauding and smiling.  “Bravo! Bravo, indeed!  Queen Christina, I had heard your court had a wonder, but I could imagine none greater than yourself.  But now, to have seen this?”

            The prince had left Christina then, moving away from the stunned Queen to mount the dais and gently caress Adam’s hair.  “Hair as black as night,” the prince had whispered in the suddenly-silent court.  “Lips as red as blood!  Here, surely, is the fairest in all the land!”

            It had been a debacle.  Christina had gone storming out, leaving Adam alone amid the titillated court to duck away from the prince’s hand, murmur some sort of apology, and then flee to his one last sanctuary - the forest.  There, deep in the woods in his secret place, he could feel safe again. Because somewhere in her private chambers, Adam knew, Queen Christina would be before her horrible artifact, the magic mirror she’d brought with her from her father’s home.  The thing responded only to her bloodline, had kept her family in power for generations.  It was the reason why some dared to whisper behind raised hands and closed doors that Queen Christina was actually a witch.  And that was a theory Adam had little trouble believing.

            Still, being embarrassed by a drunken fool of a visiting prince in her own court was worthy of banishing the prince in question, at worst.  Adam had no idea what had happened to the man, only that when he’d returned to the palace, the visiting prince and his entourage were gone.  Adam had paid little attention.  The only thing he cared about was that the evil, magical glow wasn’t present in the window of the queen’s chambers.  Christina no longer sought the council of her magic mirror. When Adam had gone to bed that night, he’d worried only for the safety of the visiting prince.  He’d never thought to take heed of his own safety.

            “Why?” Adam blurted out.  “Why is she doing this to me?  I gave her everything she wanted, everything!  I was no threat to her power.  I don’t want the throne!  Why is she having me killed now?”

            “Quiet.”  That was it. It was all the huntsman said.

            Adam ground his teeth in frustration.  “So that’s it?  I came out to my spot this morning, only wanting to play my music and enjoy the forest. And the next thing I know, you show up and put a knife to my throat, tie my hands, blindfold me and put me on a horse! I know Christina hired you to kill me, Blake.  You won’t tell me where, won’t you at least tell me why?!  After all those years we’d been friends before you left, I’d like to think I’ve at least earned that much!”

            “Adam, if you don’t be quiet, I’m going to gag you!”

            “Go to hell!”  Adam pulled angrily on the ropes at his wrists, trying to pull them loose from the saddle horn where they’d been tied.  “I get it, ok, Blake?  I know what Christina’s like, what she’s capable of, and I know you don’t have any choice in this!  Frankly, if someone had to assassinate me, I’d prefer it to be you.  But dammit, I want to know why!”

            Adam’s mount stopped, while the huntsman’s took several uneven steps. And then the huntsman’s hand had roughly grabbed Adam’s hair.  “I told you to be quiet!” the huntsman snarled, shoving a cloth into Adam’s mouth. “But you never could keep your damned mouth shut for more than five minutes, you jackass!”

            Only Blake Shelton would ever speak to the prince of the kingdom like this. But he and Blake had always had an unusual friendship.  They’d been inseparable friends as children, and far far more when they’d grown up.  Adam had suffered more than one beating at his father’s hand for the sin of loving only men and would gladly have suffered more for Blake.  No matter how many times he was beaten for turning down suitor after suitor, Adam refused to marry, refused to perform his duty to the throne to produce an heir. He couldn’t.  He refused to live a lie.  Blake Shelton had been the only man Prince Adam had ever truly loved.

            But when Blake’s father had passed away and Blake had moved so he could care for his mother, they’d lost touch.  Blake had returned two years ago as the queen’s huntsman, providing game for the palace kitchens, and Adam had rejoiced.  But the huntsman had greeted Adam as a servant to a prince and nothing more. How different the huntsman had been from the smiling, laughing, blue-eyed, dimpled young man Adam had secretly loved.  Those same blue eyes were now cold, hard.  They were the eyes of a man who had seen much, suffered much.  The eyes of a man who could kill.  Would they be the last thing Adam would see now?  Or was he condemned to die in silence and darkness, never knowing what it was he’d done to deserve this fate?

            They were moving again.  Adam hung his head and let himself slump in the saddle.  His mind wandered, reviewing the good and bad in his life.  To his surprise, much of the good had to do with Blake.  But really, why was that so surprising?  So much about Blake had been good, the stolen kisses, caresses.  The way Blake’s hands had held him down in the hay above the stables the first time they’d dared to commit the ultimate sin and make love.  He remembered Blake’s hand covering his mouth, the terrified look in Blake’s eyes when they’d finished and one of the stable hands had returned unexpectedly, rummaging around below.  Had the man climbed up into the hayloft, he would have seen the lowly head cook’s son, naked and on top of the equally-naked heir to the throne.  Caught, Blake would have risked banishment or worse.  And Adam would have surely been severely beaten.  But when the stable hand had simply found whatever it was he’d come for and gone with no awareness of the two in the hayloft, Adam and Blake had burst into muffled, relieved laughter, quickly dressing to go their separate ways.

            Two days later, Blake’s father had died, and in a month, Blake himself was gone.

            Lost in his misery, Adam barely realized it when they’d stopped.  He’d startled when he’d felt the huntsman’s hands at his wrists, freeing him from the saddle horn before the hands closed around his waist and lifted him from the horse.  Adam moaned around the gag and shook his head.  He wasn’t saying no so much as he was pleading to be allowed to talk.

            But the huntsman made no move to remove the gag or Adam’s blindfold.  The larger man’s arms were around Adam’s waist, partially lifting him, forcing the prince forward.  Adam stumbled, fell over what felt like a fallen tree.  The huntsman pushed him down, forcing him to his knees with his body lying over the massive trunk of the tree.  The rope around his wrists pulled, the huntsman dragging it forward.  Adam felt little jerks on his wrists.  The huntsman was tying him to something, keeping him pulled over the tree as he knelt on the damp ground.

            “You wanted to know where I was taking you?  This is where my house used to be, when my dad was alive.  Nothing left of it now except some burned, broken walls and the crumbling old fireplace.  This is where my childhood ended, Adam.  My dad died here, in this house, of the wasting sickness.  And my innocence died when your father’s men kicked in the door, looking to collect tax money my widowed mother and I couldn’t pay.  They dragged us out here, beat me to a pulp, and had their way with my mother right where you are now, Adam.  They held her down right over that same tree.  And all I could do was lie there and watch.  They violated my mom, burned down my father’s house with everything we owned, and every time I tried to get up, they’d just kick me back down.”

            Adam moaned again, shaking his head, begging once more for the gag to be removed, for his vision to be restored.

            “That’s where I took you, Adam.  That’s why you’re here, right where my mom really started the process of dying.  She never recovered from that, you know.  She never spoke again, even when we left. She just wasted away until she finally finished the job of dying about six months later.  So when I came back, I went into the woods, distinguished myself as a huntsman until I was finally tapped as the king’s official huntsman. How’s that for a kick in the teeth? The same king who had ordered the attack on us was now paying me to supply game for his table!  I don’t think that old bastard had any idea who I was, though.  He’d long ago forgotten the cook, his son and his wife.  Now he just wanted fresh game for his table.”

            The huntsman’s voice was so bitter.  Adam shuddered.  He shook his head, tugged on the rope and tried to get up, only to have a powerful hand press hard on his back, forcing him back down over the tree.  “Don’t get up.”

            “Mmm!  Mmm mmm!” Adam tried rubbing his face against his shoulder, hoping to dislodge the gag or the blindfold.

            “You want to know the answer to your second question, Adam?” the huntsman asked. “You want to know why the queen wants you dead, even though you gave her everything she wanted?  Because there’s still one thing you have that she doesn’t. She’s beautiful, Adam, the most beautiful woman in the land.  But last night, she finally had to face the fact that there’s still one in her kingdom more beautiful than even she is.”  The restraining hand on his back was gentle now, tracing fingers along Adam’s spine and making him shiver.  “Do you even know it, Adam?  Are you aware of just how gorgeous you are, especially when you laugh or sing?  The way those pretty hazel eyes of yours go half-lidded when you get into your music, those long lashes fluttering down and that voice of yours just soaring?  Adam, Christina doesn’t stand a chance with you in her court!  And that’s why she’s getting rid of you.  It’s got nothing to do with your birthright, your royal blood, or anything at all to do with the throne.  It’s the oldest reason in the world for a woman to kill a rival - simple jealousy.  You’re going to die today, Adam, for the unforgivable crime of being the fairest in the land.”

            Adam moaned again, letting himself slump in despair.  He hadn’t thought that even Christina could sink this low. Obviously, he’d been wrong.

            The huntsman’s hands were moving, tracing down Adam’s sides.  “Here’s the catch,” he whispered.  “Christina doesn’t just want you dead, Adam.  She wants me to teach you some sort of lesson, I reckon, about daring to be you.  Or she just wants to punish you for the crime of being beautiful.  Because she’s ordered me to hurt you, Adam, to...”  The huntsman paused.  “I brought you out here to where my childhood ended, tied you down over this tree where your father’s soldiers ruined my mother, hoping that it could make me angry.  That it could give me the strength to do what I’ve been ordered to do.  I thought I could tap into that, use it to hurt you. But...  But I...  I can’t!”

            Sudden movement.  Blake had moved around Adam, taken hold of the rope around Adam’s wrists and quickly cut him free.  Adam startled, reaching up to pull off the blindfold.  He blinked up at the huntsman as his former friend stood there, staring down at the sharp knife he’d just used to free Adam.  The pain in the blue eyes made Adam feel cold.  Adam quickly pulled the gag out of his mouth.  “Blake!  Wait!”

            “Go, Adam,” the huntsman said softly.  “Take my horse, it’s faster.  Ride for the setting sun and flee to the west.  Hide among the barbarians and Christina won’t be able to touch you again.”

            “And what about you?”

            “I’ll face whatever comes.”  The huntsman sighed.  “There’s no point in my running.  She’ll just look into her witch glass, see I haven’t done as she’s ordered, and finish the curse she cast on me.  I’ll be dead before noon tomorrow.”

            Adam got up.  “She cursed you?”

            The huntsman nodded.  The blue eyes were still fixed on the razor-sharp hunting knife in his hand.  “She knew I’d baulk when she ordered me to ravage you, and so she used her magic on me.  If I don’t... Unless I violate you, I’m a dead man.”

            “Blake.  You can’t violate me.”

            “I know that, Adam!  That’s why I told you to take the horse and go!”

            Adam came around the tree to the huntsman and pushed the knife down.  “You can’t violate me,” he repeated, “because I’ll offer myself to you willingly.”

            The huntsman looked up in surprise.  Adam took advantage of his open mouth to press his own to it, kissing the huntsman with all the fierce intensity of longing over long absence.  “Where have you been?” Adam moaned, clinging to the huntsman.  “I’ve missed you, Blake!  I missed you so much!”

            “I went into the barbarian lands,” Blake explained, kissing back.  “Stayed there until my mom died, and then came back.”

            “But why?  There was nothing left for you here!”

            The big hands caught Adam’s face, held it still as the huntsman looked hard at him.  “There was one thing here.  The last good thing in my life.  I never stopped loving you, Adam!  I thought if I came back, took the job as lead huntsman, then I could at least be near you, see you sometime.  I thought I could make sure you were alright, but instead...?”  He moaned, crushed Adam against his chest.  “I could never hurt you, Adam!  Not even to save my own life!”

            “You won’t hurt me.  I love you, Blake!  I never stopped loving you!”

            The huntsman gave a little cry that sounded half happy and half pained.  “I love you, too!”

            “Then don’t die!  Do what you have to do, Blake, I want you to!  Please, like it was before?”

            The huntsman lifted him, his strong arms carrying Adam still pressed against his chest.  Adam’s legs went around the huntsman’s hips, letting himself be carried a short distance and then pushed down onto a bed of soft moss.  “Please,” Adam whispered.  “Please, Blake!  Like it was before!”

            “Like it was before.”

            Their clothes were coming off, the huntsman’s nimble, talented hands undressing them both until they were both naked, the sun warming their skin in patterns caused by the shifting of the leaves in the slight breeze.  Skilled fingers opened Adam, assisted with a bit of lard.  “Please, Blake, please, I need you, it’s been so long!”

            “You’re so tight!  How long has it been?”

            “There hasn’t been anyone,” Adam confessed.  “I never wanted anyone else except you.”

            That made the huntsman whimper.  Unable to wait any longer he climbed forward, holding himself up with one arm while the other caught one of Adam’s legs.  Then he carefully eased himself inside.

            Adam gasped, whimpered a bit at the burn.  Then the huntsman was fully seated and it was good, oh so good, just how he’d remembered it.  They rocked together, Adam chanting the name of his lover like a mantra, like a prayer, like a magic spell that would ward off all evil.  They worshipped each other, hands and lips and tongues and loving gazes.  When they finally climaxed together, it was as good and sweet as the first time.

            Then the huntsman was turning him, lying down behind Adam, gathering the prince into his arms.  “I love you,” the huntsman called.  “And you can’t go back now!  You can’t go back into the palace, so come with me.”

            “I will.”

            Kisses, making their way up Adam’s neck, the huntsman’s lips tickling the shell of his ear.  “You’ll be safe there, in the land of the barbarians.  I’ll protect you.  Christina can never hurt you again, and we can live in peace.  Together.”

            “Together.”  Adam clutched at the arms around him.  “Yes, Blake, please, take me with you!”

            They washed in the stream, dressed.  Then they were on their horses, heading west.  The two would continue on, traveling even beyond the range of the queen’s magic mirror, the prince and the huntsman fading away into quiet obscurity to live happily ever after.


End file.
